The Person Rory J Dawson Could Spend Days Locked In A Room With

"I started out playing music as the frontman and songwriter for an indie pop band Friends Of Ben, and after that gently fell apart, I found myself still writing songs. So for the last couple of years I have been operating as a solo artist," explains Brissy folk-pop muso Rory J Dawson.

His EP While Away was recorded at Hunting Grounds Studios in Moorooka and mixed and mastered by Tristan Hoogland at Sing Sing Studios in Melbourne. "Tristan is not only extremely skilled, he is one of a select few I can spend days locked in a room with," jokes Dawson. "The EP is a miniature song cycle detailing the subtle ebbs and flows of a relationship over the course of a weekend away at the Sunshine Coast. I wanted the EP to have a narrative, with the songs serving as the key turning points in the story. At the time I was reading the collected short stories of John Cheever, and that certainly influenced the lyrics and melodic tone of the EP. I wanted to capture that same sense of this resigned melancholy pervading seemingly benign domestic settings.

"Today is my favourite [track] because I think the lyrics and instrumentation are the most in sync. Lyrically, the song is about the aftermath of a late night fight, and the guitar sound and the harmonies have this great nocturnal, almost exhausted quality to them that really suits that scene," he enthuses.